The minimalistic Dragunov’s trigger is neither as light nor as smooth as that of a typical precision sniper rifle’s trigger.

The Dragunov’s role as a multi-target countersniper/designated marksmen rifle has been proven from the Soviet era on through to contemporary Russian combat operations.

The Dragunov has become a major factor in the Global War on Terror. Because U.S. snipers and special ops troops may face the rifle, they often receive training with it.

Most sniping rifles are designed to be fired from a bipod or rest. The Dragunov is remarkably well balanced and allows for solid offhand or kneeling shots better than most rifles.

Throughout the Cold War, the Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova was so hard to come by for Western intelligence agencies that they eventually offered a bounty on it. Like its AK brethren, what the rifle may have lacked in hyper-accuracy it made up for in ruggedness.

I think I first became interested in the Dragunov sniper rifle because of its “Holy Grail” status in the U.S. ordnance intelligence community. Even a decade after the Dragunov had entered production and service with the Soviet armed forces, examples were unknown in the West and U.S. intelligence agencies were offering a bounty to anyone who could supply one.

I eventually got to see and handle a Dragunov for the first time in the mid-1980s, but did not get to shoot it. That rare treat would take place a few years later. From the first time I picked up a Dragunov though, I was fascinated with it. It felt right in the hands and it looked sleek and deadly. In Brussels I had become acquainted with a representative for a Russian Arms dealer who said he could get me a Dragunov, but legally importing it to the U.S. was not going to happen. Some years later I did buy one of the Chinese copies of the Dragunov built by Norinco. A friend from a U.S. special ops unit had told me they had bought NDM-86 Chinese Dragunovs in .308 for foreign weapons training since they had plenty of that caliber available. I liked it, but it wasn’t Russian and it wasn’t 7.62x54R.

My fascination with the Dragunov continued from afar until Fall 2004, when I was commissioned to do a study of the Beslan School hostage incident. As I talked to Russian contacts and analyzed the info, it became readily apparent that snipers from the Spetsnaz unit “Rus” had saved a lot of lives because they were armed with Dragunovs. At the point when the terrorists started killing parents, teachers and children, many hostages were leaping from windows and attempting to escape while terrorists were shooting them as they ran. Maximizing the effect of the Dragunov’s speed of fire—since it is semi-auto, its 10-round detachable box magazine capacity, and its scope’s relatively wide field of view—the snipers provided accurate countersniper fire to cover the escaping hostages and eliminate terrorist shooters. More than 380 of the 1,100 hostages died in the incident, but that death toll could have been much higher had the Spetsnaz snipers not delivered accurate fire from their Dragunovs.

DMR Role

This incident gave me a new appreciation for the tactical value of the Dragunov in urban combat. It also made me an advocate of self-loading urban sniping rifles with detachable box magazines of 10 rounds or more for tactical units in case they encounter an incident with a number of hostages and a number of terrorists. One result, too, was that I made it a point to set up scenarios to see how quickly I could engage multiple shooters located in diverse parts of a “building” with a Dragunov.

I concluded what many have concluded about the Dragunov. It really isn’t a sniper rifle in the sense of allowing ½ MOA groups at 300 meters or more. Two MOA groups are usually considered good with a Dragunov. The Dragunov is really more of what in the U.S. armed forces would be termed a DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle). The Dragunov throughout much of its history has been intended to give the infantry squad armed with AK-47s or AK-74s a weapon that allows one squad member to reach out and eliminate an enemy at greater distance. That was really the Dragunov’s mission, though it has often functioned as a “sniper rifle.”

In the 1979-1989 Soviet War in Afghanistan, the ability of the Dragunov to eliminate Mujahideen fighters at longer distance than the AK-74 made it quite valuable. Snipers helped secure roads through the mountains by engaging Mujahideen, especially mortar crews. Spetsnaz snipers would use Dragunovs mounting night vision optics (designated SVDN) to attack Mujahideen movement at night and to interdict areas around Soviet installations. It is my understanding that at least some of the earliest Dragunovs obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies came from those captured in Afghanistan by members of the Mujahideen.